There’s nothing like a good conference to create opportunities for new deals, and F.ounders last week in New York was just such an event. Indeed, on the panel I ran about the international tech scene, Dimitry Grishin, the co-founder and chief executive of Russian e-mail and social networking giant Mail.ru, sat next to Liam Casey, CEO of PCH International, a man described as “Mr China” for his ability to make, ship and deliver just about any piece of hardware, including some for a well known tech brand you’re probably using right now.This was perhaps more than fortuitous. For Grishin had that day announced his plans to invest in a personal robotics fund. Grishin Roboti[...]

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll have a breakout panel on social casino games, one of the hottest social game categories in 2012, at our annual GamesBeat 2012 conference on July 10-11 in San Francisco.Social casino games have become a hot category on Facebook, accounting for 13 percent of all of the players on Facebook, compared to just 8 percent a year ago, according to analytics firm Kontagent. That makes social casino games bigger as a category than farm games or city simulations.Speculation that the government will relax online gambling restrictions and allow real-money gambling at some point in social casino games has fueled investment in the titles. Zynga has the larg[...]

There’s a ton of speculation around what Microsoft will be announcing on Monday in Los Angeles. Both the Wrap and ATD claim the event will showcase a Microsoft built Windows RT/Windows 8 tablet. According to folks with knowledge of the situation, they’re somewhat right but mostly wrong. We’re being told that a tablet/e-reader built in conjunction with Barnes & Noble is on tap and that it will be entertainment driven.Before we get to that, let’s go over the brief chain of events starting with timing and location. Invites for the event went out on Thursday with zero flair and zero info causing some ire amongst the press. (At least Apple has the courtesy to give us[...]

Crytek prides itself on on creating the highest-quality 3D graphics in its games, from the original Far Cry to today’s upcoming title, Crysis 3. The Frankfurt, Germany-based game developer also makes the CryEngine, which serves as the foundation for a number of high-end 3D games. At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the company showed off its Crysis 3 game and the downloadable free-to-play title Warface, which is expected to be published by Trion Worlds. With each game, the company is pushing the cutting edge of graphics in video games. Crytek is also working on its own social entertainment platform, dubbed GFACE.We sat down for an interview with Anvi Yerli (right)[...]